Howard Lawrence Berman

Just a note to those California Democratic Party leaders who have been spending the last few months sketching new congressional districts in anticipation of Monday's Supreme Court ruling in a case out of Arizona: Put down your pencils and put away your maps. The court rejected a challenge to Arizona's redistricting law, so California's very similar process — with an independent citizens commission instead of the state Legislature drawing districts — is also safe. District lines here are valid. Gerrymandering will not be making a comeback. Legislatures are dominated by whichever party holds the majority, and in Arizona that would be the Republicans, in...

Related "Howard Lawrence Berman" Articles

Just a note to those California Democratic Party leaders who have been spending the last few months sketching new congressional districts in anticipation of Monday's Supreme Court ruling in a case out of Arizona: Put down your pencils and put away your...

Chris Dodd swept through Hollywood like he was still campaigning for office.
On a recent three-day road trip to Los Angeles, the former U.S. senator — now Hollywood's chief lobbyist — visited the home of Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman Michael...

Retiring Westside Congressman Henry Waxman announced his backing of Sheila Kuehl for Los Angeles County supervisor on Monday, handing the former state senator a key endorsement as she heads into the final weeks of campaigning before the...

Former U.S. Rep. Howard Berman on Tuesday endorsed Bobby Shriver in the runoff election to fill Zev Yaroslavsky's seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Berman praised Shriver for being "focused, bipartisan and committed" in...

President Obama and his aides have repeatedly sought to dispel the rumors driving thousands of children and teens from Central America to cross the U.S. border each month with the expectation they will be given a permiso and allowed to stay.
But under...

Money in politics — and proposals for diluting its influence — was a dominant theme during a standing-room-only forum in Torrance on Saturday featuring the large field of candidates to succeed longtime Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills).
"Get...

A onetime aide to former Rep. Howard Berman (D-Valley Village) said he is going to try to unseat the man who defeated his boss in a bitter 2012 election.
But this is no grudge match, activist Marc Litchman said Thursday. His main goal ...

The race to succeed Rep. Henry A. Waxman is emblematic of a fresh wave sweeping across California's politics and, increasingly, the national landscape: intraparty fratricide as a means of upward political mobility.
Four of California's Democrats in...

A self-described "new generation Republican" is joining the race to try to unseat Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), who won a costly battle with a fellow Democrat in 2012.
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WASHINGTON — Rep. Henry A. Waxman, one of the nation's most influential liberal lawmakers for nearly four decades, will retire from his Westside seat this year, closing a career in which he successfully championed laws to clean the country's air, regulate...

WASHINGTON — Rep. Henry A. Waxman, whose legislative record has made him one of the country’s most influential liberal lawmakers for four decades, announced Thursday that he will retire from his Westside seat, the latest in a wave of departures that is...

WASHINGTON – "One of the giants of Congress." "A tough partisan, but above all, an institutionalist." "End of an era."
Those were among the reactions Thursday to the announcement by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills)...

After an earlier effort by local lawmakers failed to fly, legislation designed to reduce helicopter noise and improve safety in the skies above Los Angeles County was finally approved by Congress on Thursday.
A day after the House of Representatives...

Democrats were within striking distance of a supermajority in the state Senate late Tuesday, and were drawing near in the Assembly as well, moving the party closer to unilateral power to raise taxes.
The potential gains, a result of sweeping changes in...

President: Barack Obama. The president's accomplishments during his first four years — steadying the economy, rescuing the automobile industry and winning passage of measures to stimulate the economy, crack down on financial industry abuses and extend...

Redistricting of the state's congressional seats led to retirement announcements by two Southern California GOP stalwarts. Republicans will miss them. There's a good chance Democrats will as well, because even though they may not yet appreciate the...

In June, San Fernando Valley voters winnowed a field of seven candidates for the 30th Congressional District seat to the two clear leaders: Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Brad Sherman, who are now facing off as a result of redistricting that forced...

California's redistricting reforms of 2008 and 2010 took crucial boundary drawing power away from political parties and gave it to an independent commission. The "top two" initiative of 2010 snatched the primaries away from the parties by...

The Democratic slugfest underway in California's 30th Congressional District is the product of two political developments of recent years: the open primary and nonpartisan redistricting. The former means that the two top finishers in the upcoming...

As President Obama works to restart the immigration debate, congressional Democrats on Wednesday reintroduced the proposed Dream Act, long-sought legislation that would provide children who were brought to the U.S. illegally a route to citizenship if they...